PXE boot - how to succeed on client side (TFTP + NFS server running on Synology NAS)

[rmarquar]

Hi,

after spending several hours on this topic and searching the forum etc., I think now it's time to ask for some help & insight:

I'm having an up&running PXE server infrastructure (TFTP + NFS server on Synology NAS, several client PCs for our Family / Home-Office).

I can successfully PXE boot e.g. Desinfec't (from German CT magazine), Linux Mint and Windows PE based rescue systems, i.e. the PXE server side is definitely working with NFS.

Now I tried to PXE boot Porteus, I can load kernel and initrd but then get stuck at
"Porteus. Lightweight, lightning fast, portable.
^searching for porteus-v5.0-x86_64.cfg file
find: /lib/modules/6.8.10-porteus/kernel/drivers/net: No such file or directory
...
...
Porteus data not found.

Looks to me as if the NFS cheatcodes don't work / Porteus does not try dhcp/networking (and therefore not expanding the modules), which ends up in above error-messages.

As an example here the boot parameters/cheat codes I am successfully using for e.g. Linux Mint Live:

This is working:

Code: Select all

...
set base-url images-to-boot/Linux-Mint/linuxmint-21_2-cinnamon-64bit
set nfs_path ${nfs-root}${base-url}

kernel nfs://${nfs-server}${nfs_path}/casper/vmlinuz	|| read void
initrd nfs://${nfs-server}${nfs_path}/casper/initrd.lz || read void
imgargs vmlinuz initrd=initrd.lz root=/dev/nfs boot=casper vga=normal netboot=nfs nfsroot=${nfs-server}:${nfs-root}${base-url} ip=dhcp locale=de_DE keyboard-configuration/layoutcode=de console-setup/layoutcode=de quiet splash -- || read void
boot || goto failed
goto start
 

Now I'm looking for the correct settings (if possible, if not much more needs to be done) for Porteus

I'm currently having something like this (not working, tried what I found in the forum, ....):

Code: Select all

set base-url images-to-boot/Porteus/Porteus-KDE-v5.01-x86_64
set nfs_path ${nfs-root}${base-url}

kernel nfs://${nfs-server}${nfs_path}/boot/syslinux/vmlinuz	|| read void
initrd nfs://${nfs-server}${nfs_path}/boot/syslinux/initrd.xz || read void

imgargs vmlinuz initrd=initrd.xz pxe nomagic base_only norootcopy nfsrootdebug ip=SERVER:192.168.2.213 root=/dev/nfs netboot=nfs nfsroot=${nfs-server}:${nfs_path} from=nfs://${nfs-server}${nfs_path}/porteus || read void

boot || goto failed
goto start

An additional reason beyond Porteus itself to get this working with PXE is that there is another Rescue System from a German magazin (PC-Welt) which is based upon Porteus, and might ne more reasons why it makes sense to get to a working PXE boot setup on Porteus "Client side".

Thanks in advance for any hint and recommendation - I'm also happy to follow-up with more details and tests as appropriate.

Best regards,
Roland